The annual Cobra Gold joint military operation arrives in Pattaya dumping thousands of US naval and marine personnel on the city. Russian Mafia and local Chinese-Thai gangsters decide this is a good time to rob a warehouse filled with war weapons. Duvel, a retired American, a caretaker for his aged Thai stepmother, also looks over the well-being of foreign expats as a member of the Pattaya Foreign Volunteer Police. Duvel, who leads a US Navy shore patrol down Walking Street, becomes entangled in the lives of criminals planning a warehouse heist. Meanwhile, Duvel’s mother, with the assistance of a macaw and a Moscow escort worker, slowly unravels the ancient secret formula of hell beer. As the double-crosses multiply, the fate of the heist and hell beer formula is in the hands of the winner of a Pattaya katoey beauty pageant.

“All combine in this entertaining new release from Christopher G Moore.”—Crime Fiction Lover

“The plot revolves around a septuagenarian Thai lady and a macaw, the recipe for Chinese Hell Beer, an American beer bar owner, the Russian mafia, the local Chinese godfather and son and the American Marines on the Cobra Gold exercises. Keeping the plot moving along is a Moscow hooker with ambition. And there is plenty happening. Christopher Moore is an excellent story teller. [He] keeps your interest going all the way through. The plot has many twists and turns, and Moore manages to keep more than three balls in the air at one time.... Anyone who knows Pattaya will finally put the book down with a large smile on their face, if not a real guffaw.”—Lang Reid, Pattaya Mail

“The Wisdom of Beer is a hilarious portrait of a Thai Chinese family struggling with both its history and its future as their attempts to exploit a priceless family secret intersect with the paths of a Russian arms trafficker.”—John Burdett

“The Wisdom of Beer is a uniquely hilarious romp from the pen of one of Thailand’s top story tellers.”—Colin Cotterill